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Good day readers/viewers! Today I have something at little different. Well a lot different. I took off my programming and training hats, and decided to put on my demo hat. The following Videos are 8 Minute Demos of System Center-Opalis as it is used in an Incident Remediation Use Case, included first...

Good Morning Readers/Viewers! Today, I am happy to announce the next addition to my collection of OIS 6.3 QIK based IPs on CodePlex. As you can see from the blog title, this one is all about PowerShell. :) ORCHESTRATOR RC UPDATE (11/01/2011) CodePlex Links: Orchestrator IP for PS Script Execution (RC...

Attention all Readers/Viewers, I have some fantastic news! Ten of the most popular “8-Minute-Demo Video Series” videos are now available on MS Showcase! Before anyone asks, yes, the videos are the same, but now they will be presented in Silverlight on that very formal looking UI that MS Showcase has...

Hello Readers/Viewers! Today we get another addition to the “8-Minute-Demo Video Series” (or as it has been so aptly named) :) The following video will walk you through some “slideware” on two Opalis Examples: “ CMDB Federation ” and “ Event Remediation ” enJOY!

Good morning readers/viewers! Many of you have seen a preview of SC Orchestrator’s new PowerShell provider. That new functionality will allow you to invoke runbooks from a simple to use PS command line. As that feature/functionality is still a bit away, I have something else to preset to you today. The...

Hello Readers! I know it has been a LONG time since I posted anything… and this post is not about Orchestrator. Instead, it is about SkyDrive + Surface RT + Start Screen Pinning NOTE: Pinning documents (non SkyDrive) to the Start Screen can be done this same way. First off, let me be honest here, it...

Good Morning Readers/Viewers! I decided to dive a little deeper today and provide a more “technical” demonstration for this, the latest addition to the “8-Minute-Demo Video Series”. In this video you will see how useful the “.NET Script Object” is and how it enables advanced workflow (databus) data manipulation...

I wanted to thank all those who attended today’s CTSMUG monthly meeting . I also want to send a great big thanks the organizer(s) for giving me the opportunity to present to the group. As promised, attached is the PPT deck that I used for the presentation (with the anecdotal customer examples). NOTE...

Another “tip/trick” for you today. Have you ever needed to quickly monitor a running Process to see when it ends? Maybe you do not yet have a Monitoring tool, but you have OIS? Even if you do have a Monitoring tool, the following may be a quick and easy way to create and run an Ad-Hoc Process Monitor...

Good Morning Readers and Viewers! I had my head in the clouds for this installment of the 8-Minute-Demo Video Series . Today we explore Windows Azure and the Orchestrated Deployment of a Cloud Application utilizing System Center ( Opalis Integration Server and Service Manager ). VIDEO VIDEO DEMONSTRATION...

Now, this IS something completely different!
Today’s post is all about content for today’s:
Tech•Ed Australia Pre-Conference Technical Training – Opalis Seminar .
Thank you to everyone who was able to attend!
The majority of this content is available elsewhere on this...

I have a “tip/trick” for you today. This is an edge case, but I wanted to make sure something was documented about it (as well as a way to easily identify/fix any occurrences within your OIS deployments).
SCENARIO:
You have a policy with two or more objects and when executed one or...

It is hard to believe that one year ago today, Microsoft officially announced the acquisition of the small Canadian software company, Opalis. It has been a great year and there are so many exciting things to come! In honor of this momentous occasion: Because Automation runs on Guacamole. enJOY!

Hello Readers and Viewers! Again, it has been a while, but I hope to make it up to you with an extra-special (and extra-long) “8 Minute Demo” Video! This one is warm off the heels (okay, cold off the heels) of MMS 2012, where I presented and demonstrated some Policy to Runbook Migration Tips… I did my...

Hello Readers/Viewers, I wanted to take a moment to introduce someone who you may have already interacted with or gained knowledge from by reading his blog… If not, I hope that this post will increase awareness of his blog and Orchestrator skill set! Brian Nielsen , SharePoint Guy :) Blog: http://wss...

The long anticipated SharePoint Integration Pack was released to CodePlex on November 20th, 2010 by Jeff Fanjoy, Senior Support Escalation Engineer, Microsoft Corporation. The Integration Pack (.oip) file and User Guide are posted here: http://opalis.codeplex.com/releases/view/56094 I decided that just...

Readers/Viewers, in the event that you have not yet heard about the release of the SC Orchestrator 2012 BETA, here it is: ***Announcing the System Center Orchestrator Beta!*** Here are some related and helpful links to accompany this announcement: Download the SC Orchestrator 2012 BETA: http://www.microsoft...

Hello Readers/Viewers! Today we take a look at some new functionality within the VMM Self-Service Portal 2.0 SP1 Release. BACKGROUND If you haven’t already heard, Virtual Machine Manager Self-Service Portal 2.0 SP1 was recently released. In the long list of new features , one in particular stood out...

Hello Readers/Viewers! Have you heard of the TechNet Virtual Lab: Introduction to Opalis ? If not, and you want to give it a go, please feel free to do so. In fact, if you were worried that you may get stuck somewhere, we have a treat for you. Thanks to Orin Thomas ( http://orinthomas.com/ ), we now...

Hello Readers/Viewers! I am proud to announce that the System Center Opalis Integration Server 6.3 Unleashed book is now available. For some of you this is not news, as it was actually released a couple weeks ago, this is just the first opportunity I have had to get the information on my blog. :) Some...

As promised, Part 2! This is simply a post so that I could attach the second ZIP file which contains the documentation for the Integration Packs. Please see the attached: Opalis_Documentation_Collection_IPs.zip Also, please be sure to reference the Excel File: Opalis_Product_Listing_and_Documentation_Reference...

Hello Readers and Viewers! The long awaited and highly anticipated SC2012 Solution Runbook Examples are here! I mentioned them yesterday during my first Instructor-Led Lab @ MMS 2012 , and now they are available here, from my blog and CodePlex . If you happen to be attending MMS 2012, be sure to stop...

Hello Class. Err. Hello Readers!
This is my first stab at [we]blogging, so I have to vet some things out: verbiage, tone, content, length, etc. Sadly, this first entry will not contain any juicy technical information, but I didn't want a "contentless" blog.
I know what you are thinking (well at...

Hello Readers/Viewers! Ryan Andorfer has done it again - created a great solution which you can leverage as an example to perform similar tasks… This time it is all about AUTOMATING the ability to EXPORT and CHECK-IN Runbooks from Orchestrator to Team Foundation Server. NOTE: This example solution does...

Readers/Viewers, this is just a simple post which will be directly referenced content by the OIS 6.3 - Advanced Workflow & Best Practice Video Tutorial post. BACKGROUND Opalis Integration Server (OIS) has the built-in ability to “Self-Monitor”. Each object has the ability to throw an exception if...